Christmas Thief
by Spunky0ne
Summary: In an effort to meet and charm Byakuya's younger cousin, Tetsuya, Renji breaks into Kuchiki Manor. Tormented by his past, Tetsuya braves the tenuous path of finding new love in Renji's arms. But can he really leave the past behind him? Renji/Tetsuya romance, mpreg.


**Christmas Thief**

**By Spunky0ne**

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**(A very sweet Renji/Tetsuya romance - Not sure how long it will be, maybe not more than a few chapters, but we'll see how it develops. Enjoy!)**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**Chapter 1: The Breaking In**

"Rukia?" Byakuya queried, tapping lightly on his sister's bedroom door, "Are you ready to leave for the Christmas ball?"

He went silent for a moment as his sister emerged from the room, dressed in the lovely, red and green kimono he had had made for her and brushing a few unruly strands of hair out of her eyes.

"I'm ready, Nii-sama," she said, pausing for a moment at the way he was looking at her.

"You look lovely," he said, giving her an uncharacteristically warm smile, "Hisana would have been proud."

"Thank you, Nii-sama," Rukia replied, blushing, "for the kimono and for the compliment."

"I believe Ichigo has arrived," Byakuya went on, "He is to be your date, tonight, ne?"

"Yes," Rukia answered, blushing even more furiously.

"Well, you will of course remind him to be a gentleman. If he is not, he will have to deal with me."

"Nii-sama!"

"Let us go," Byakuya said blithely, "We shouldn't keep your 'date' waiting."

Rukia hesitated for a moment, her pretty, violet eyes looking out into the gardens, "Erm, Nii-sama, before we go, there's...something that I need to ask you."

"Oh?" said Byakuya, looking back at her through curious eyes, "What is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering about something. You see, I...kind of _did_ something, and I don't know if it was the right thing. I mean, it felt like the right thing at the time. But, now I'm not so sure."

"Well, why don't you tell me what it was, and we can reason it out together?" Byakuya suggested.

"Ah, well, you see, I noticed that when Renji came by to drop off those reports a few days ago, he seemed to...erm..._notice_ our cousin, Tetsuya-san. He even asked me afterward who Tetsuya-san was. Byakuya, he said that he thought Tetsuya-san was beautiful."

"Tetsuya is beautiful," Byakuya agreed, "Renji would have to be a fool or completely blind not to notice."

"But...well, Renji was blushing, and Renji hardly ever gets so flustered. And then yesterday, you remember, he came by without there really being a reason. Nii-sama, I think that Renji is _interested_ in Tetsuya-san..._really _interested."

"Ah, I see," the clan leader said thoughtfully, "So...what did this _interest_ you sensed in that red-haired fool lead you to do?"

"Nii-sama," Rukia said knowingly, "I know you don't really think Renji's a fool."

"No, he just acts like one on occasion. But he is a good man, and if it is true that he is interested in Tetsuya, and our cousin returns the feeling, I will certainly give them my blessing to see each other."

"Oh, that's a relief," sighed Rukia, "I know that Tetsuya-san is not a full blooded noble, but he is sort of a special case, so I didn't know if it will be all right. I'm glad it is."

"But you said that you did something," Byakuya remembered, "Would you like to tell me what that was?"

"Erm, well, I uh...I sort of..._told _Renji that Tetsuya-san would be guarding the manor tonight instead of attending the ball. You know, that he wanted to give the other house guards the chance to be with their loved ones on Christmas Eve. It made me sad to think of him being here alone. And I remembered that Renji was out of sorts because all of his friends had plans, even me. I'm going to the ball with Ichigo. Anyway, I, well, I suggested something to him, and it was a little bit reckless."

"Oh?" Byakuya said, arching an eyebrow curiously.

Rukia bit at her lips and looked down at the ground.

"I um...I told Renji that he should..._use some of his less gentlemanly skills_ that he used to survive in Inuzuri, and he should, well, break into the manor tonight."

"What?" Byakuya mused, blinking in surprise.

He considered the words for a moment, fighting off a smirk.

"Nii-sama?" Rukia queried, "Are you...angry?"

Byakuya let out a soft, amused breath.

"Come Rukia," he said, taking the sputtering girl's arm, "We do not want to be late."

"N-nii-sama? Nii-sama!"

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Tetsuya emerged from the main house of the manor, dressed in his usual, dark navy house security uniform and carrying a handful of red roses. He was met near the door to his room by a tall, handsome black stallion, whose sapphire eyes matched Tetsuya's own. The horse tossed his head in greeting, then nuzzled his master's pale cheek, nipping at his hair as Tetsuya smiled and entangled his fingers in the stallion's silky mane.

_Merry Christmas, Tetsuya,_ the stallion's wispy voice whispered in the young man's mind.

"Merry Christmas, Arashi," Tetsuya answered softly, "I am off to visit Naoki. Will you mind things while I am gone?"

_Of course._

"I am sure it will be quiet, with everyone gone to the celebrations."

_Master, may I ask you why you did not go?_

"Well," Tetsuya sighed, "With everyone wanting to attend the ball, it would have felt wrong to assign someone else to remain here. But we could hardly leave the place unguarded."

_I could have taken the watch alone. You know that._

"Yes," Tetsuya confessed, walking slowly across the gardens and pausing to open the back gate, "To tell you the truth, my heart really wasn't in it."

_Sadao and Mai and your adoptive sisters were going._

"Yes. But..."

Arashi's eyes softened in sympathy.

_It seems that special occasions make you miss him even more than you always do._

"They do. But it is all right. It cheers me to go and talk to him. He may not be able to hear me, but the words warm my heart. And they give me hope that even though he has died, that we will meet again someday."

Tetsuya sighed softly and smiled as a few snowflakes began to fall.

"This is perfect weather for our meeting. Naoki and I loved the one time that we got to touch snow while we were prisoners."

_Go then, Master. Enjoy your visit with him._

"Arigatou, Arashi."

Tetsuya passed through the gate, leaving the stallion alone in the gardens. He walked down the dark trail, his step sure, even in the dark. In a few minutes, he reached the family cemetery and passed through the gates. He approached one of the graves on silent feet, then kneeled in the snowy grass alongside it, laying the roses on the grave, then closing his eyes, bowing his head and picturing himself speaking to his lost love.

_"You look well, Tetsuya," Naoki said, smiling and offering him a gentle kiss on his cheek, then on his smiling lips, "Merry Christmas."_

_"Merry Christmas, Naoki," Tetsuya answered softly, taking the other youth's cold hands and warming them with his, "It is good to see you, even though the only place we can meet is here, in my mind. Things are going well. I am very happy here at Kuchiki Manor, serving Byakuya-sama. The council has finally relented and allowed me to be made head of house security. It is...a formality, really. I have been running things for a while, but now it is official. Orochi-san was not happy about it, of course. And I took great pleasure on both our behalves at seeing him scowl so at the announcement."_

_"I am sure that he was not pleased!" Naoki chuckled, "I am happy for you, Tetsuya, my love. But you know that there is something that would make me even happier."_

_Tetsuya bit at his lip gently, lowering his eyes._

_"Oh, I am not ready for that, Naoki. And even if I was, I haven't met the right person. In truth, I don't know how anyone else could make my heart feel the way you did."_

_"Well," Naoki said affectionately, "It's not like that. It's not supposed to be the same. Love is different with every couple, Tetsuya. Even when one is falling in love after losing someone. It has been long enough. And...I sense that someone is already near you, and just waiting for you to notice."_

Tetsuya's breath caught as he sensed the light brush of Arashi's mind against his.

_What is it, Arashi? Is there an intruder?_

There was a short pause, then the stallion snickered softly.

_This is beneath you, Master. Allow me..._

XXXXXXXXXX

Renji crept through the shadows, along the fenceline at the outer edge of Kuchiki Manor. A Rukon street brat at heart, he moved silently, chuckling softly as he remembered when he had been completely incapable of hiding his reiatsu from anyone. But long, and sometimes painful games of hunter and prey with Byakuya had finally taught him how to tame his burgeoning reiatsu. And the new level of control meant more conservative use of power in battle, and also a chance to sneak up on Byakuya's young, very lovely and extremely elusive bodyguard.

He sighed, smiling helplessly as a pretty image of Tetsuya invaded his mind. And although he knew better than to let himself be overly distracted while staging a break-in, he couldn't stop himself from wondering what it would be like to touch the shy noble's soft, blushing cheeks and to kiss what must be even softer and sweeter lips. The prospect sent a gentle throb through his loins, and he sucked in a steadying breath before contemplating a place to make his entry and soundlessly launching his lithe body over the fence.

Renji wasn't sure what happened next, only that he was stricken by something devilishly hard, that knocked him back into the air and onto the original side of the fence he had been standing on. Having been cured of his tendency to land on his tattooed posterior when surprised, he managed to come down on his feet, then he stood perfectly still for a moment, peeking through the openings in the fence and trying to determine what manner of security measure had thrown him out so quickly and effectively.

"Damn, Tetsuya-san's good..." he muttered.

He peeked again through the fence and saw nothing but a growth of trees. He climbed up more carefully and looked over the fence. Seeing that all was silent, and it seemed no alarm had been given, he climbed onto the top of the fence and started to drop down.

Renji gave a surprised yelp as, even though he was sure there was nothing between him and the ground, the nothing that was there seemed strangely solid and warm. He almost shrieked as a voice sounded in his stunned mind.

_Apparently, you do not learn quickly. But I shall be glad to teach you to have better manners than to try something like this, miscreant!_

"What the...?" the redhead managed, just before being launched even higher into the air, and this time sent tumbling down on the outside of the fence.

And to add insult to injury, this time the expulsion ended in what sounded to be a hearty, equine snicker.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here? Who is that?" Renji snapped softly.

He recovered himself and walked back to the fence, then peeked in and spotted the very faint, translucent, and moonlit outline of a tall horse.

"Ah, Byakuya said that Tetsuya-san had a horse. This must be him. Huh, maybe if I try being nice..."

He climbed up and looked over the fence, smiling a the stallion's barely visible head seemed to turn, and the beast glared at him.

_Rukia told me once that it doesn't matter so much with horses what you say as the tone you use, so..._

"Hey, uh...look, erm, big guy? Horsie? Eh, Fleabag? See, the thing is, I'm not really a thief. I'm just not coming in through the front door because I want to uh, surprise your friend, Tetsuya-san."

The horse looked back at him through glinting blue eyes and chewed calmly on a bit of grass.

"See, I don't know if you've ever, you know, been with a girl horse...um, not that Tetsuya-san's a girl or anything. I think things like that don't matter. It's just I really _like_ Tetsuya-san and I want to get to know him."

The stallion blinked slowly and huffed a soft breath out of his nose, expelling a puff of fog. Renji watched in awe as the horse's body shimmered and darkened, taking on a much more visible and solid looking form. He lowered his head to take another bite of the sweet grass, seemingly ignoring the bumbling intruder on the other side of the fence.

Renji took it as an invitation to climb very slowly up onto the fence, then he looked down at the quiet beast, whose blue eye rotated to keep watch on him.

"Okay, Fleabag," Renji said in his sweetest, most charming voice, "I need you to not kill me or throw me back over that fence, okay? I promise, I'm not here to steal anything or to hurt anyone. I just want to see Tetsuya-san, okay? So, no biting and keep those hooves to yourself and I won't trash your ass either."

He eyed the watchful stallion for a moment longer, then dropped to the ground.

One moment, he was staring into the stallion's blazing, sapphire eyes, then the next, he was flying into the air again.

"All right, you obnoxious little horse pie!" the redhead hissed, "How do you like this?"

Renji's reiatsu glowed red around him and he went into a quick, controlled flip, touching off a tree and landing neatly, a few feet past where the snorting stallion stood, stamping a dainty hoof and huffing steam out of his nostrils.

"You wanna go, Fleabag?" Renji laughed, "Then, you're gonna have to catch me first!"

He flash stepped away, chuckling to himself as he listened for hoofbeats behind him, and failed to hear any.

"Fell too far behind, ne?" he said, smirking.

He loosed a soft sound of surprise as a flash step sounded beside him, and a pair of snapping jaws neatly closed on his sleeve.

"What the fu...Auuuuuuuuuuuugh!" the redhead howled as the stallion's head turned, and a thrust of kido struck Renji's body, sending him crashing to the ground, "What _was _that? You use freaking _kido_? What _are _you, you four legged son of a...auuuuuuuuuuugh!"

A second shock of kido threw Renji's body into the air, sailing over several trees, then crashing down into a moonlit lake, near a calm meadow where he remembered training alongside Byakuya on occasion. Renji scrambled to the surface of the water, and managed a single gulp of air before something yanked on his leg and dragged him down deeper, beneath the water's crystalline surface.

_Shit, this is so not how I imagined this night working out..._

He kicked away whatever had hold of him, then dragged himself to the surface, only to be dragged down again, as he managed another gulp of air.

_FUCK!_

He aimed another kick at whatever had him and missed, then fired a kido blast, freeing himself to scramble to the surface of the water. He crawled onto the shore and collapsed facedown, groaning. A moment later, he was roughly grabbed and turned over, then found himself face to face with a wet and deadly-eyed, but still very beautiful Tetsuya, wielding a short knife, which he held threateningly at the redhead's exposed throat.

"Whoa! Hang on, don't kill me, okay?" Renji shouted, "I'm...!"

"I know who you are," Tetsuya said guardedly, "Why are you trespassing here? And why were you attacking my Arashi?"

"Wha...? Me attacking _him_?" Renji objected, "I didn't touch the ol' Fleabag until he decided to toss me around like a goddamned frisbee!"

Tetsuya's pretty, sapphire eyes blinked and he looked back at Renji blankly.

"A...frisbee?"

"Oh," chuckled the redhead, brushing the hair out of his eyes and carefully sitting up as Tetsuya with drew the knife, "You've never seen a frisbee?"

"No."

"It's this...living world thing. A kinda plastic disc thing that people throw and catch at the beach."

"Ah."

Renji climbed to his feet and squeezed some of the water out of his shihakushou while Tetsuya watched.

"Why did you come here, Abarai-san?" he asked more calmly, "And why sneak in, as opposed to coming in through the front gates?"

"Oh, sorry about that," Renji laughed, squeezing more water out of his clothing, then pulling a bouquet of rumpled and soaked flowers out, "I uh...Rukia said that you were on guard duty tonight, and I wanted to come and..."

"And give me these?" Tetsuya finished, gazing at the drippy flowers with curious, amused eyes.

"Yeah."

"How do you even know me?" the noble asked, "I am usually not even seen."

"Yeah, well I caught sight of you a couple of times, and I wondered, you know? Rukia said that you weren't seeing anyone."

"No."

Renji took a step towards Tetsuya, then stopped as a wet and piqued looking Arashi stepped in between them.

"Hey!" Renji objected, "I'm just talking to the guy. Get outta the way, Fleabag!"

The stallion glowered at the redhead, then gave him what looked oddly like a smirk and shook his head and neck, sending a shower of water all over the surprised fukutaichou.

"Arashi," Tetsuya said sternly, "Enough. Go."

The stallion snorted and disappeared in a flash step.

"A flash stepping horse?" Renji said, sounding impressed, "That's just crazy!"

"He also understands and speaks our language," Tetsuya said solemnly, "So you will want to mind what you say to him. He is a very prideful beast."

"What, really? He understood all of that?"

Renji was taken aback as he remembered the voice he had heard before in his mind.

"Is he telepathic?" he asked, "I think I heard him talk to me, only I didn't know it was him at the time."

"Arashi spoke to you?" Tetsuya asked.

"Yeah," Renji said, nodding, "Why? He doesn't do that to everyone?"

"No. He usually only speaks to me. It suggests he knew all along you meant no harm to me."

"Yeah," Renji huffed, looking down at his rumpled clothing and beat up body, "I can tell by the bruises."

"My apologies, but you did trespass."

"Yeah, I know that. And I'm sorry, Tetsuya-san. I uh...guess that I was just trying to make an impression."

"You did that," Tetsuya commented.

There was a long pause between the two, then Renji felt an icy shiver go through him.

"Well, now that I've delivered the flowers and made a complete jackass of myself, I think I'll slink away somewhere and dry off. See ya' Tetsuya-san."

He started to flash step, but froze as Tetsuya's voice sounded behind him.

"Come now, Abarai-san. I would hardly be a gentleman if I did not show my gratitude for your gift and offer you relief from your bumps and bruises. If you return with me to the manor, I will heal your injuries and we can warm up with a bath and some hot cider."

Renji's heart skipped at the invitation and his smile returned full force.

"You sure you're not setting me up for ol' Fleabag to come and boot me out again?"

"Are you afraid?" Tetsuya asked, smirking, "You seemed to hold your own quite well against my stallion. And I must admit that I am flattered that you would go to such lengths when all you really needed to do was to have Rukia introduce you to me."

"Aw, but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun as getting tossed all over Kuchiki Manor and having such a beautiful guy threaten me with a knife to my throat."

"Well, I did offer to heal you," Tetsuya reminded him.

"Yeah, and if I remember correctly, you offered to take a bath with me as well," Renji said, smirking.

"I never said that I would take a bath _with _you!" Tetsuya objected, looking flustered at the thought.

_Damn! That's just cute..._

"Oh, backing out, huh?" Renji said, arching an eyebrow, "I see how it is."

"Would you like to have a bath with Arashi instead?" Tetsuya said, frowning, "I am sure he would be glad to throw you back into the lake, Abarai-san!"

"Hey, hey!" Renji chuckled, putting up his hands in a defensive gesture as Arashi appeared nearby and fixed his eyes on the redhead meaningfully, "I was just kidding, okay? I just...knew about Byakuya's private bathing chamber from when he gave me a tour of the manor before. I thought that, you know...we could..."

Tetsuya lowered his eyes, biting gently at his lips and thinking.

"It is not proper to bathe alone together without attendants, Abarai-san, and all of the attendants have been excused for the ball. It is a grand occasion. But...if you wish to use the chamber..."

"Hey," Renji said in a softer tone, his eyes growing more serious, "No one's around, right? No one's going to know. And I promise you, I'll be a perfect gentleman. So, what do you say, Tetsuya-san? Will you take a bath with me?"

Tetsuya couldn't quite stifle an amused laugh at the suggestion.

"Oh, very well, Abarai-san, as long as you keep your word about being a gentleman. I suppose it will do no harm."

"All right, a bath it is," Renji said, grinning, "But...you have to stop being so formal with me. We're gonna have taken a bath together and we're friends now, so you have to call me Renji."

"Very well," Renji-san," the noble said, blushing, "The bathing chamber is this way."


End file.
